Community Organizing for Equity in Education Grant Opportunity 2017
Background
In 2015, the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund (the Memorial Fund) adopted a new mission: to achieve equity in education by working with those affected and inspiring all to end racism and poverty.
To fulfill the new mission the Memorial Fund developed a programmatic focus area called Co-Creating Equity. The focus of this program area is on centering the experiences and wisdom of communities most negatively affected by racism and poverty. Under this programmatic focus, the Memorial Fund launched a grant initiative to support parent organizing as a means to increase parents’ capacity to better understand and take action against inequities faced by their children and families, and ultimately to transform the education system in order to achieve an equitable environment.
As a result of this funding experience the staff and board have a greater interest in supporting community organizing more broadly,to maximize the power of people of color and those living in poverty to address racial and economic injustice through collective action. To achieve equity in education, the leadership of parents, neighbors, youth, and teachers is indispensable in shaping the narrative and designing the solutions needed. Effective organizing will often need to contend with not only the education system, but other social systems like health, employment and housing conditions.
Grant Purpose
This Community Organizing Grant opportunity aims to build on current organizing efforts that are addressing issues that contribute to educational inequities faced distinctly by communities with the highest concentration of people living in poverty and people of color. This grant opportunity will support organizing focused on:
●Eliminating structural barriers to positive educational experiences and opportunities
●Changing neighborhood conditions that adversely affect the social, economic and health outcomes of residents, and
●Transforming education systems such that students can create lasting prosperity
This grant will be offered in the seven communities listed in eligibility section below. This opportunity will award a general operations grant for a period of 12 to 24 months to support the work of community organizing.
Grant Goals
●Grow a base of organizers in the state, focused on building the power of people experiencing the intersectional effects of poverty and racism, to advance efforts to achieve equity in education.
●Invest in efforts that strengthen and lift the voices of people living in poverty and people of color to end injustice and create the community they envision.
●Strengthen the existing organizing efforts and infrastructure in selected cities.
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Contact Information:For more information on this Step One in the Application Process, or assistance completing the online form please contact:
Margarita Alvarez, Grants Manager
Telephone: 203-230-3330 Extension 40
Email:
Applications will be reviewed for eligibility based on the criteria below. Eligible organizing efforts are those that are focused on equipping and shifting power to those who are most affected by racism and poverty in the context of education. Eligibility will be based on an applicant’s ability to demonstrate that they:
- Have strong relationships with and accountability to members.
- Are guided by members and provide the necessary staffing and facilitation support necessary for members to speak for themselves and take action on behalf of their community.
- Have structures in place that support organizing in service of building member’s power.
- For Organizations: The organizer is supported by formal leadership in the organization; supervisor or coach uses organizing experiences to provide guidance and advice.
- For Grassroots Groups: Roles, responsibility, and accountability functions of fellow organizing partners is clear.
- Can relate their organizing efforts to equity in education.
- Develop the leadership and advocacy skills of the population they are working to organize.
- Focus on the following communities:
Contact Information:For more information on this Step One in the Application Process, or assistance completing the online form please contact:
Margarita Alvarez, Grants Manager
Telephone: 203-230-3330 Extension 40
Email:
●New Haven
●Bridgeport
●Hartford
●Meriden
●New Britain
●New London
●Waterbury
Contact Information:For more information on this Step One in the Application Process, or assistance completing the online form please contact:
Margarita Alvarez, Grants Manager
Telephone: 203-230-3330 Extension 40
Email:
Grant Application Process
Step One:Initial Submission / August 1, 2017 / Issue invitation for Step One of application
August 21, 2017 / Step One of application due
Step Two:
Interviews / September 1-30, 2017 / Schedule interview for applicants advancing to Step Two
Step Three: Proposal / October 2, 2017 / Issue request for proposal to applicants advancing to Step Three
October 30, 2017 / Complete proposal and budget due
December 13-20, 2017 / Notification of final decisions and awards
Step One: Application
Briefly answer the following questions via the following link by August 21, 2017:
- What is the name of the organization/group that is applying?
- What is the Name of Primary Contact(s) for this application?
- Email address
- Phone number
- 501(c)3 status
- We are a 501(c)3.
- We are not a 501(c)3 but have a fiscal sponsor.
- We are not a 501(c)3 but are willing to obtain a fiscal sponsor.
- What is the background and history of your organization or group? (character limit 1500)
- Why is organizing important to you/your organization? (character limit 1000)
- What is your organizing model or philosophy? (character limit 1500)
- Describe your relationships with members (i.e. people being organized). Please address how you build trust and how you remain accountable to your members? (character limit 1500)
- What issues have you organized around in the last 3 years? How did you arrive at those issues?(character limit 2000)
- How has your organizing work related to equity in education? (character limit 1500)
- Who provides the organizer with advice, coaching and moral support? Please briefly describe how they each support the organizer(s).(character limit 1000)
- What training have you offered your members?(character limit 1000)
- What city do you organize in?
- Provide more specific information about the geographic location anddemographic population(s)you organize with? (character limit 500)
Contact Information:For more information on this Step One in the Application Process, or assistance completing the online form please contact:
Margarita Alvarez, Grants Manager
Telephone: 203-230-3330 Extension 40
Email: